Fulham v. S'hampton

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... uad-sheets

The Saints offloaded Osvaldo to Juve today/yesterday so that's one less piece of the puzzle that the Whites have to deal with. Fulham's morale should be up with the recent additions to the squad. If this team needs more motivation than the cold, hard facts that sit in front of them, then they are destined for the drop. Berbatov is off to Monaco on loan (another reason the squad should be upbeat).

Lewis Holtby could make his debut for Fulham following his arrival on loan from Tottenham but Konstantinos Mitroglou, who has joined from Olympiakos for £11m, did not register in time to feature. As they arrive, Dimitar Berbatov joins Monaco on loan. Southampton, too, have lost a maverick striker in Dani Osvaldo joining Juventus, also on loan. Many changing faces, then, and both sides will be hoping for a change in fortune having failed to win their most recent games. David Cook

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Craven Cottage

Last season Fulham 1 Southampton 1

Referee M Jones

This season G12, Y37, R1, 3.3 cards per game

Odds H 9-4 A 6-5 D 5-2
Fulham v Southampton: Probable starters in bold, contenders in light. Photograph: Graphic
Fulham

Subs from Stockdale, Senderos, Karagounis, Amorebieta, Rodallega, Christensen, Duff, Tankovic, Kasami

Doubtful Amorebieta (knee)

Injured Riise (hamstring, 15 Feb), Briggs (hernia, Mar), Etheridge (hip, Mar)

Suspended None

Form LLLWLW

Discipline Y33 R0

Leading scorer Sidwell 5

Southampton

Subs from Gazzaniga, K Davis, Clyne, Hooiveld, Targett, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, Isgrove, Lambert, Stephens, Do Prado, Reed

Doubtful Lambert

Injured Lovren (ankle, Mar), Ramírez (ankle Mar)

Suspended None

Form DDWLLW

Discipline Y38 R0

Leading scorer Rodriguez 9

 

Going for a Fulhamish 2-1 result and the lads gearing up for the relegation fight. COYW!!!

 

Still can't erase from my memory how inept, pathetic and stupid they made us look last time. Granted, this one is at home and hopefully today's activity gives the team a boost, but we haven't been playing particularly inspired football of late. Soton have looked pretty sharp when I've seen them of late but they have developed a bad habit of taking their foot off the gas and getting hit back for goals.

Can we limit the damage enough goals-wise from the early pressure they're likely to put us under? Are we capable of putting more than 1 in their net? I think a result is possible but probably not likely. 2-1 Saints and we'll wait in excited anticipation for the next match to see what the new signings add to the club.

 

It will be interesting to see who plays in this match and who plays on Tuesday. I'm guessing some of the new guys might get subbed in for the Sheffield match before making their first starts at Old Trafford on the 9th. It's unfortunate that the deadline happens to be the day before a match.

I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow. Seems like Fulham is in more of a flux than Soton, but maybe that will make us more difficult to plan for. I hoping for a win, but expecting a loss. So I'll predict in the middle, 2-2 draw.

 

Considering few if any of the additions will be eligible, the game has been downsized to a scrimmage right?

 

Woefully predictable. We can hang around, generate a few chances and fail to convert them for about an hour. After that, the floodgates open. We're now bottom of the table, 2 pts back of 19th, with 53 goals conceded and a -31. Maybe the new additions can help with putting goals on the board, but I don't see where the defensive help is coming from. Guess we'll see how far adrift we are when 2/22 rolls around and we get WBA.

 

Having concluded her performance, the fat lady has returned to her dressing room, where she wonders about FFC's fixture list next year in the Championship.

It's troubling how quickly the team has gone back to dire performances after a few hopeful moments following Jol's departure. We're not bottom of the table by accident, the shots difference and goals difference stats add up to a Championship-level team. Do we even have enough quality and enough spirit to win the FA replay? Doesn't look promising.

 

I haven't watched as much Fulham as I have in past years, but Stekelenburg has looked underwhelming the few times that I have seen him this year (not putting the blame on him today, just a comment in general).

 

So...our entire right side from the 60th minute on...? Sure, we start to play like crap at the 60min mark because we have a coach and not a manager leading us but I implore everyone to go back and watch the tape. I don't think there's been a defensive opening that wide since Rosecran's blunder at Chickamuaga.

Holtby, who allegedly started on the right, either got tired or lost shape and tucked into the middle too much which resulted in Reither covering way too much ground; which is not optimal for someone as defensively liable as he is.

This all resulted in Lallana finding more than just time and space--he found half a football pitch worth to rove around in; which lead to 1 goal from him, 1 near-goal from him, 1 goal from a WIDE OPEN Lambert via a cross, and 1 final goal from Rodriguez--when Hangeland was marking him by the touchline. Look at the shot locations

There's so much we can complain about re: player performances if not appearances. Yet the biggest problem we're starting to see, of which Don danced around without really getting to the bottom of, is Rene is getting found out. Badly. It's becoming clear he's a coach but not a "manager". This may seem like semantics, but although he's a good 'coach' (evidenced in getting the shot diff WAAAAAAY down, more possession; may seem like nothing but these are much better than before and more attune to league avg), he has a stunning inability to react and adapt to what the opponent is doing--a la Sanchez. His substitutions have been increasingly baffling, and today he had ZERO answer for Pochettino swapping Wanyama with Cork. Wanyama was spraying the ball around but also was forfeiting the team's shape that we managed to exploit to some advantage. Cork's charts don't appear like much but that was exactly the point--clog the lanes between Bent and our MF. Eventually we had zero outlet. Then see my third paragraph for what happened next.

And, as Chase Tingley said on twitter, "Is 'failed to adapt to Jack Cork' as damning a statement as it sounds from here?" Yep. Yep. Yep.

As much as I want to type how I never wish to see Bent on the pitch again (and that notion is increasingly tilting toward Dempsey as well), I don't know if any of it matters considering this major flaw in our coaching staff.

 

One word, UGH!

I actually did somethng I have never done before, unless I had a reason too, I turned the game off before it was over, right after the 3rd goal. I have never done that before no matter how bad they have played. I still have not given up hope, I still think we can avoid the drop as it is so close at the bottom of the table, but we need to act now.

COYW!